In a field of medicine, pathology, or the like, there has been proposed a system that digitizes an image of a cell, a tissue, an organ, or the like of a living body, that is obtained by an optical microscope, to examine the tissue or the like by a doctor or a pathologist or diagnose a patient based on the digitized image.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-37250 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a method in which an image optically obtained by a microscope is digitized by a video camera with a CCD (charge coupled device), a digital signal is input to a control computer system, and the image is visualized on a monitor. A pathologist performs examination while watching the image displayed on the monitor (see, for example, paragraphs [0027] and [0028] and FIG. 5 of Patent Document 1).
In the case where a digital pathological image is displayed on a monitor of a computer system to perform a pathological diagnosis, a person who gives a diagnosis (hereinafter, referred to as “operator”) uses an operation means such as a mouse and a keyboard to shift or perform zoom-in or zoom-out on an observation position of the digital pathological image on the screen of the monitor. In response to a command of the movement or the zoom-in or zoom-out that is input from the operation means when the operator operates the operation means, a program of processing a browse of the digital pathological image performs a display processing in accordance with the command.
A typical program performs processing of the zoom-in or zoom-out of an image with the center of the image displayed on the screen being set as a reference. For this reason, in the case where a region of a part of the image displayed is intended to be observed in detail by performing the zoom-in, the operator first has to input, using the operation means, a command for shifting the desired region of the image displayed to approximately the center of the screen, and input a command for performing the zoom-in on the region using the operation means upon completion of the shift. In this way, a plurality of operation steps are needed, which is a factor of deterioration of the operation efficiency. In particular, in the case where a part that is necessary to be observed is located around a corner, there is fear that the part that is necessary to be observed may be outside the screen due to the zoom-in operation, and the operator misses a part that is necessary to be observed. In such a case, the operator has to find again the part that is necessary to be observed by shifting a display range of the image, for example, with the result that the deterioration of the operation efficiency is caused.
Further, in the typical program, processing of shifting the display range of the image with respect to a dragging operation of a mouse is allocated in many cases. However, in this system of shifting the display range of the image by the dragging operation of the mouse, the shift of the display range of the image is limited up to a position of the end of the screen to which a cursor pointer can be moved. To display a further display range, it is necessary to input a command assigned to an operation other than the dragging of the mouse, which also deteriorates the operation efficiency.
In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, it is desirable to provide an information processing apparatus, a method, and a computer-readable medium capable of desirably performing observation of an image through a change in zoom magnification for display.